Nightmare delays on tarmac still a problem for plane passengers

JOAN LOWY Associated Press

Published 8:00 pm, Monday, October 31, 2011

WASHINGTON -- Being stuck for hours on a stuffy, stinky plane at the airport -- every passenger's nightmare -- was supposed to be a thing of the past, thanks to the U.S. government's threat of huge fines against the airlines. Well, dream on.

Last weekend's snowstorm stranding of hundreds of New York and New Jersey-bound travelers, some for as long as seven hours, on an airport tarmac shows the effectiveness of federal rules designed to protect passengers from such ordeals is limited, sayofficials and consumer advocates.

Under Transportation Department rules that went into effect in April 2010, most tarmac delays at U.S. airports are limited to three hours for domestic flights and four hours for international flights. Exceptions to the time limits are allowed only for safety, security or if air traffic control advises the pilot that returning to the terminal would disrupt airport operations.

But a consumer advocate with airline industry experience says that despite the risk of fines as high as $27,500 per passenger, at least one airline -- JetBlue Airways -- apparently didn't make the kinds of arrangements most carriers make to protect passengers from hours and hours of sitting in cramped airline seats with little food and limited bathrooms.

A rare October snowstorm and equipment problems at Newark's Liberty International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport forced 23 planes to divert to the much smaller Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Connecticut. Passengers on at least three JetBlue planes and one American Airlines flight from Paris reported being confined for seven hours or more. Food and water ran out and toilets backed up.

The captain of JetBlue Flight 504, which was diverted en route to Newark from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, begged for help to get his plane to a gate.

"We can't seem to get any help from our own company," the captain can be heard pleading with authorities over his radio on audio provided by LiveATC.net.

"I have a paraplegic onboard that needs to come off. I have a diabetic on here that's got an issue," he said later. "It's a list of things. I just gotta get some help."

The Transportation Department said in a statement that it is investigating whether JetBlue's handling of Flight 504 violated the department's three-hour limit on how long airlines can hold passengers in planes on tarmac or face fines.

The department is also looking into several other possible extended tarmac delays of more than three hours, the statement said.

JetBlue spokeswoman Alison Croyle declined to comment on the pilot's remarks or whether the airline had arrangements in place in case of a diversion to Bradley.

Bill McGee, a travel adviser for the Consumers' Union, said a confluence of events made the situation extraordinary: the snow, the large number of diversions to Bradley, a power outage at the airport during the storm that may have hindered refueling, and not enough customs officials on duty to handle a diverted international flight.

But weather affects all airlines equally, he noted.

"How well airlines respond to it is a test of how well airlines treat their passengers," said McGee, a former airline dispatcher. "Their responsibility is to be prepared for situations like this and to have handling agreements in place" with companies that work at airports like Bradley for just such "irregular operations" as last weekend's diversions.

Steve Lott, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, expressed frustration with three-hour tarmac rule.

"The way the rule was written, it was targeted at the airline industry as if airlines were the only parties involved," Lott said. "This should be a shared responsibility between airlines, airports and government agencies like TSA or customs."

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has praised the tarmac delay rule as a success. During the first year the rule was in effect, delays of three hours and longer fell to 20 from 693. But the Government Accountability Office said in September that the government's effort to eliminate longer delays has made it 24 percent more likely that airlines will cancel flights as they approach the three-hour ceiling.